Devon and Cornwall continue to experience flooding, and with another yellow weather warning issued for Saturday, it’s only expected to cause more disruption.
Due to the heavy rain expected, Network Rail and Great Western Railway have decided to close lines.
Exeter St Davids – Barnstaple, Exeter St Davids – Okehampton (via Crediton), Liskeard – Looe, Par – Newquay will be closed until next week.
Numerous sections of ballast have been washed away by floodwater and require stabilisation and rebuilding before trains can run on the lines again.
Additionally, underwater inspections of bridges are needed to ensure there is no damage that would prevent safe crossings. This needs to be done by specialist divers who can not enter until water levels have decreased.
Replacement buses will be in place between Newquay and Par and between Liskeard and Looe; however, poor road conditions affect the ability of replacement buses on other routes, so passengers should only travel if necessary.
They hope to reopen the lines as soon as possible, but this depends heavily on Saturday’s rainfall.
Journey information is available online.
The heavy rain has wreaked havoc across the rail network, with landlips and a sinkhole occurring across parts of the country.
“Travel in Devon and Cornwall will continue to be disrupted into the first week of February because of the widespread flooding in the region following back-to-back storms.
“Four lines remain closed and are not expected to open until the early part of next week, however with more rain on the way we will have to continue monitoring water levels before full inspections of these lines can be completed. We’re really sorry for the disruption this is causing for passengers.
“Our teams are on the ground around the clock, working as quickly as we safely can to repair the storm damage so we can reopen these routes as soon as we can. We’d like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding.
“Please continue to check before travelling for the latest updates.”
Simon Gillibrand, Network Rail’s Western route operations director
Responses
As a thought Emma, would it be possible to include the repairs to these lines in pictures to show how the “hidden” work takes place, with extensive ballast trains appearing from ? Track lifting cranes from ?
The very hardworking P/Way staff surely deserve some recognition.
Hi Neil,
This specific chain of news came with only a select few images; for this one, only the featured image was provided.
Usually, a ‘completed work’ article would include further images to represent the work completed by the hard-working staff. As far as I’m aware, the work on some of these damages is still ongoing.